Richard Taylor gifts Frodo’s ring to Sidharth Malhotra

Wellington, Oct 12 (IANS) As a fan of the “Lord Of The Rings” film series, Indian actor Sidharth Malhotra was thrilled to receive Frodo Baggins’ ring from Oscar winning legend Richard Taylor, who made significant contribution to the trilogy’s costume, make-up and visual effects departments.

Of course, the ring wasn’t the original, but it left Sidharth extremely excited.

“Thank u Sir Richard Taylor for creating Lord of the rings and @WetaWorkshop n for Frodos Ring #travel,” the “Ek Villain” actor, who has been appointed as New Zealand’s tourism ambassador in India, posted on his Instagram page.

Sidharth lightheartedly asked Taylor if the ring is the original one. And Taylor reparteed that the actor could just tell his friends and fans back home that it’s original!

Taylor, New Zealand’s creative genius and a five-time Oscar winning talent, and Sidharth met at the former’s world-famous Weta Workshop here on Monday. They exchanged views on filmmaking, prosthetics, make-up and visual effects.

The actor also sampled what went behind the scenes of Hollywood trilogies like “The Lord Of The Rings” and “The Hobbit”, getting a dekko at the armour, weapons, creatures, prosthetics, props and costumes from iconic films.

He also spoke excitedly about how he loves Aragorn’s character from “Lord Of The Rings” and was enthusiastic about getting to feel a sword that was used for Aragorn in “Lord Of The Rings”. He was so enthused by the precision and detailing in the miniatures that he bought one for his house in Mumbai.

Sidharth, in fact, also spoke to Taylor about possible future collaborations with Bollywood.

Shankar’s “I” was the first Indian film to take the services of Weta Workshop, whose creative portfolio also includes “Avatar”, “District 9”, “The Adventures of Tintin”, “Elysium”, “Krampus”, “Warcraft” and more. Taylor too expressed an interest in joining creative forces with more Indian filmmakers.